Voter Registration

SOUTH BEND -- Obama for America will host Value the Vote open houses to register new voters, re-register those who have moved recently and educate the public about Indiana's election laws. The events are scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 25 and 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 26 at the St. Joseph County Democratic Party headquarters, 135 S. Lafayette Blvd. Free food will be provided. The voter registration form requires either a state identification number or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana has a new high-tech way residents can register to vote for the Nov. 2 elections — using Internet-capable mobile phones. The state has offered voter registration online since July and announced the online service for cell phones on Sept. 21. Residents have to have a valid Indiana driver's license or state-issued ID to use either registration service. The mobile phone service allows new voters to register. Existing voters can update their registration information.

ST. JOSEPH Â? Voter registration in Berrien County reached a 30-year high in the latest presidential election. Requests for concealed weapon permits were up markedly in 2008 over the previous year, while the number of new businesses registered in the county and the number of birth certificates fell. Those statistics were part of a 14-page annual report that Berrien County Clerk Louise Stine shared with the Board of Commissioners on Thursday. While the report does not give detailed analysis on why some figures were up or down substantially, they point out that the 18-employee clerkÂ?

If you were hoping to register to vote at your local Indiana License Branch, Saturday is the last day to get that done. The voter registration deadline is Monday, but Bureau of Motor Vehicles branches arenÂ?t open Mondays, the state agencyÂ?s Web site says. Voters can register there as late as 5 p.m. Friday and until 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Anyone seeking to register to vote on Monday can get forms at other sites around the county, including the following: The Voter Registration office at the County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.

ELKHART COUNTY Â? Poll workers are expecting a record number of voters for next week's primary. Thousands of first-time voters plan to cast their ballots. But for one local government, handling the surge is breaking the bank. Elkhart County's voter registration office says it's processed nearly 3,700 applications this year Â? 1,281 in the last three weeks. That's twice what they usually see in a presidential primary. Voter registration employee Shelley Basham attributes the rush to all the attention over IndianaÂ?

SOUTH BEND -- Voter registration is always looking for people to help on election days, and Pam Brunette, Democratic board member for St. Joseph County voter registration, said training sessions start this week. The county has 230 voting precincts and each polling place is staffed by seven people. Poll workers are divided into judges, sheriffs, clerks and inspectors. Each position is staffed with two people, one Republican and one Democrat, with the exception of inspector. The upcoming training sessions are for the primary and are valid for the November general election.

SOUTH BEND Â? The campaigns for president have stormed Indiana over the last few weeks and will likely continue to do so until the May 6 primary. But will all the excitement mean bigger voter turnout? At the St. Joseph County ClerkÂ?s office, spokesperson Pam Brunette said voter registration numbers are up because itÂ?s a presidential election year, but they arenÂ?t different from any other presidential election year, despite the unprecedented attention from the candidates. Brunette said she expects more registrations to come in this week because itÂ?

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A state Senate committee approved two proposals Monday that supporters say would make Indiana elections more accessible and meaningful. One bill would allow Indiana citizens to register to vote online if they have a valid driver's license or state identification card. Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville, said a secure Web site would allow people to register to vote or change their voter registration information. "This is just another way that Indiana can move forward and encourage participation in our election process," Lawson said.

BERRIEN COUNTY -- This historic presidential election has people registering to vote in record numbers. But the numbers in one city are raising some eyebrows. It all has to do with the 2000 Census Report. The number of people counted in Benton Harbor back then is slightly higher than the current number of registered voters. But 40 percent of the population in 2000 wasn't even old enough to vote. Election officials say there are several reasons behind the numbers. "This year they've gone up an incredible amount," said Berrien County Clerk Louise Stine.

It's not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana's voter registration rolls. Bloated voter rolls in every one of the state's 92 counties contain the names of people who have moved away, are in prison or have died. Their presence on the registration lists make elections vulnerable to the type of shenanigans that can truly affect the outcome of elections.

SOUTH BEND -- Local party leaders and others reacted Friday to the verdict in the forgery trial involving former longtime chair of the county and congressional district Democratic Party Butch Morgan and party member Dustin Blythe. Accused of conspiring to forge signatures on petitions to place Democratic candidates on the state primary ballot in 2008, the two were convicted Thursday on multiple felony counts after three days of testimony. Morgan faces up to 22 years in prison, and Blythe faces up to 75 years.

SOUTH BEND -- Two additional witnesses testified Wednesday to being told by the former head of the county Democratic Party to copy signatures onto petitions to place Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the 2008 state Democratic primary ballot. Former Voter Registration workers Pam Brunette and Bev Shelton told the jury in the forgery trial involving Owen "Butch" Morgan and Dustin Blythe that Morgan told them to copy the names from a separate petition to place gubernatorial candidate Jim Schellinger on the ballot.

SOUTH BEND - A second person has admitted guilt in the ballot petition case involving Butch Morgan and other former county Democratic Party members. Pam Brunette pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of Class C felony forgery, one count of Class D felony official misconduct and one count of Class D felony falsifying a petition. Three additional counts were dismissed. The former Democratic head of Voter Registration faces between two and eight years for the Class C felony and six months to three years for each Class D felony.

A key ruling Monday in the ballot petition fraud case involving St. Joseph County's former Democratic Party Chair Butch Morgan and three former Democratic voter registration employees will send all four of the accused to trial. Morgan is accused of ordering Dustin Blythe, Pam Brunette and Bev Shelton to forge signatures on ballot petitions in the 2008 presidential primary. The special prosecutor appointed by St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak admitted his case is built on the 222 signatures in question.

After the State of the Union, the big question remains: Can congressional Democrats and Republicans put aside partisan politics to seriously address the major issues facing our country? With the debt crisis ever looming and judicial and executive nominees languishing, there is plenty of opportunity for partisan rancor. But there is one area where politics should be -- and, surprisingly, may be able to be -- tossed aside: voting. In 2011 and 2012, we saw a wave of states pass restrictive laws that would have made it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote.

SOUTH BEND -- Members of the St. Joseph County Election Board announced members of the new vote center committee at Thursday's meeting. Each majority political party named three members to the committee, and they will serve with St. Joseph County Commissioner Andy Kostielney, according to election board chairman James Korpal. County Clerk Terri Rethlake and County GIS Manager John Carlson will both serve in advisory, nonrecommending roles on the committee, according to Korpal. "This board has made the recommendation to the (St. Joseph County)

DUNLAP -- The Elkhart County Democratic Party will meet Saturday at 364 Teamsters Hall, 23283 U.S. 33. Breakfast will be available beginning at 8:30 a.m. Elkhart County Clerk Wendy Hudson will discuss voting centers and how the current system of voter registration will be affected. Bruce Carter will give a presentation on the fundraising program to help generate money for local party efforts.

LAPORTE -- The chairman of the county Democratic Party is asking for a federal investigation into the purging of more than 13,000 people from voter registration lists in LaPorte County. The problem has been fixed, according to Donna Harris, co-director of the LaPorte County voter registration office. In addition, the names of more than 10,000 residents still eligible to vote have been re-entered on voting lists, she said. The remainder of the names were not added back to voter lists because of deaths and other factors, such as relocating outside the county, Harris said.